Sunday, November 27, 2011

My family and I went to Ohio for Thanksgiving again this year, and man did it make me feel old. Last time (two years ago) my cousins and I ran around everywhere and stayed up until late in the night being hyper. This past weekend I couldn't run around because I'm recovering from a hip muscle tear, I was too tired to stay up very late, and added to all that was an inconveniently-timed somewhat apathetic mood that I couldn't seem to shake. However, despite all that we did have a good time. :) (I certainly hope I wasn't too boring for my cousins, at any rate...) :/ If so, I'm very sorry.

We had a lot of fun making bonfires, and playing with them, and standing in the mud. The second day we were prepared though. Rebecca, John, and I laid a gravel ring around the fire pit so that we wouldn't be sinking into the mud. (Laid it with nearly mathematical precision, I might add..."nearly" because we didn't get out a tape measure or run a string compass, but we were close.) And we made sure to have plenty of "poking sticks" on hand to mess with the fire. Dad, Uncle Jim, and Grandpa had been out cutting down a tree, so Rebecca and I went and cut ourselves some nice green sturdy sticks.

Mud-less fire pit.

When we got home every article of clothing was smoke-saturated, since it'd all been put back in the suitcases with whatever we'd worn around the bonfire. Which reminds me, I have no idea where my coat got off to when we got home...

On that note, I want to pause just long enough to mention that I actually packed light for once! I was very proud of myself. ;) I wore/used all but two of the items I packed.

This was fascinating.
The log was hollow so the fire went right through it
and out the end.

On the way home from Ohio we stopped at a rest area and I noticed that the lady in the car next to us was wearing a head scarf. I didn't really think much of it and we went on.

A while later, back on the road, we saw a car stopped by the side of the road, and a woman who seemed to be kneeling on some sort of rug looking under the car. Mom and I remarked on this, and I added that I thought it must be the people who had been parked next to us at the previous rest stop, because that lady was wearing a headscarf, as was the lady peering at her car. So unless there were a lot of ladies in head scarves on the route, it was probably the same one, and she and her husband must be having car trouble or something.

It was probably thirty minutes later that a thought suddenly hit me and I turn to Mom. "The lady with the headscarf, kneeling next to her car! She was probably praying! On her prayer rug!"

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Well, I registered for classes the other day...Monday, rather. Registration started at eight Monday morning, and I underestimated how many people would actually get up early and how fast classes would fill up. Next semester I'll be able to register online, but the first semester you attend you have to go in person to sign up. As a result I wasn't able to get the schedule I wanted (only going to campus Monday and Wednesday), but this way I will have more leisurely days and time to interact with people as opposed to rushing between classes two days a week. I have classes Monday through Thursday, which isn't so bad.

I ended up having to sign up for an evening class because that's the only time I could take the Intro To Computers class. Well, I had an option to take it at one of the other locations...with the race car technology students. The lady helping me register pointed out that at least there'd be lots of guys there. Haha, yeah! Um...yeah...no...I'm not going there to look for guys... That class didn't work well with my schedule anyway, so I signed up for the evening one and I'm going to at least try to test out of the class. Otherwise Thursdays will be rather annoying since my afternoon classes end and then there's 3.5 hours until the evening class.

The next step is to get my books, as soon at the updated list of curriculum is up on the website. I'm hoping to rent as many as I can from a place online and only buy what I have to. Textbooks are ridiculously expensive! But if I rent I should be able to get the total price down from $800ish to $200 or so. I'm all for that!

Hmm...also, I'm thinking stylish shoes are out of the question for school. :) When I was there Monday and today, both times I needed to be wearing my running shoes, especially on Monday since I'd been wearing heels over the weekend. Hmph, I'm too old for all this walking over campus. Good thing I'm not on a normal college campus where the buildings really aren't as close together! :D

Yeah, heels...I played frisbee on Saturday (in good shoes, but there was lots of running) and then wore heels Saturday night when I went swing dancing, and wore them again for church on Sunday. My knee disliked that blatant disregard of practicality. Oh well. It can just suck it up and stop hurting. Hopefully.

Oh yes, swing dancing is something I've taken up over the past few months! I'd all but given up on it, figuring I'd never have the coordination to figure it out, but my friends convinced me to come to the dance with them a few months ago, and it finally clicked! And now I'm hooked.

Last weekend I was dancing with an older guy and he was telling me I should go ask one of the younger guys to dance...indicating several that were standing at the edge of the room. Two of them linked arms and starting "dancing", at which point my partner remarked "Well, they're having a bit of a gay moment...but they'll get over it." I pretty much lost it at that point...he was lucky I was able to keep dancing despite how much I was laughing. :D

Furthermore, when I did ask one of the guys to dance, he warned me that he'd been drinking (to apologize for...what, I don't know...he seemed to be able to dance still and didn't do anything inappropriate). I later looked him up on Facebook and realized he was a homeschooled kid (now a college freshman.) Uh-huh. That's cute. Yes, you're so cool. Perhaps the drinking remark was supposed to impress me? Oh, silly boys. :)

Basically, swing dancing is fun, and it amuses me. It's a great opportunity for people watching, combined with some additional interaction with them.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

I'm going to try, yet again, to start a blog and actually keep up with it. It may be wishful thinking, but it might also be very good for me. I'm finding myself at a loss for reasonable words anytime I need to write something that's more than three or four sentences and it's probably from lack of practice.

Besides...things are a little different now! I'm officially unemployed now and will be starting school in January. Yes! Also...eep! Yay! Oh my. Slightly mixed feelings, as you can tell...or conflicted feelings, perhaps.

I decided a few months back to quit my job as a nanny and go to college to study office administration. I'm super excited about it, as well as being a little bewildered at being thrown back into school life. Well, let me rephrase that...it's not the school life that's confusing me, seeing as I haven't started yet. It's the switch from being out of school and working, to being back in school...away from being...professional? An adult? Being in school really shouldn't govern that, but mentally it's a bit of a switch-up. I can only imagine what it must be like for people older than me to go back to school. I mean, I'm typical grad school age at least and have only been working three years. I did feel horribly old when I was at school a few weeks ago to drop off my transcript though. I saw a bunch of kids who looked about twelve...and then I realized they were the highschoolers. :D Phew. I'm going to the local community college and it will be nice that there should be a variety of people there, of different ages and with varying goals.

On that note (school), there's another reason I should try to keep up with this blog. I'll be taking an expository writing class and the extra practice won't hurt! And I'm guessing with school going on I'll have more to write about, or at least more time to write about life in general? We'll see. *fingers crossed*

I said I was officially unemployed and by that I meant my previous nanny job has ended. I have a few other babysitting and house sitting jobs lined up before the end of the year, and I'm hoping to have time for that after school starts as well. Obviously pet sitting and house sitting jobs will really fit into my schedule well...one can sit a house and do homework at the same time...not so much with children. :)

At the same time, I'm looking forward to my remaining free time to get some things done around the house and be prepared for school. Obviously a major room-cleaning is in order. (Obviously? of course obviously, if I expect to study in there.)

So yeah, today was my last day of work, which was kind of bittersweet. I've been taking care of these two girls since the oldest was a baby so it's odd to think I won't see them all the time anymore. Such a lovely last day too...rainy and cold! ...though I was able to take the little one out for a walk during a break in the rain.

And after work I went and got a haircut...which seems somehow indicative of something. New beginnings? Maybe if I'd gotten something radically different done with my hair, but I only got a trim which it had needed for a while, and did it today because I was on the right end of town. :D Maybe I'm just trying to come up with a good reason for the $16 I spent. ;) (And that's why I don't get my hair cut every six weeks like you're "supposed to".)

Anyway, that's a brief overview of what's been changing lately in my life!

And thanks to the post title I chose I'm thinking of that Ok Go song: the one with the video involving treadmills.